The Participatory Tree Domestication Approach: A Promising Livelihood option for Subsistence farmers in Africa (A Review of the Literature)

The Participatory Tree Domestication Approach has been proposed as a solution to the problem of fitting the trees to multitude of target environment and users` preferences. The points of criticism remain that: those smallholder farmers who lose out from the decline of wild tree resources may not benefit from domestication; domestication may encourage the entry of more commercial players into the production and marketing of indigenous fruit products, thereby undermining the benefits to subsistence farmers. Having the overall objective of examining as well as documenting the attributes of Participatory Tree Domestication Approach with the view of discovering the potentials of the innovation in contributing to the livelihood and welfare of the subsistence farmers; This research may be described as a literature review; it is exploratory and qualitative. It also involves the use of a pair of detailed and explanatory case studies drawn from the South and West–Central regions of Africa.The results of the study include the designing of a Functional, on-the- ground Tree Domestication Continuum and the development of a Conceptual Framework for the key steps and processes in the Approach.